멜빌 단편소설을 통해 본 19세기 미국지식인의 딜레마 : 『종탑』을 중심으로

김옥례

(한국교통대학교)

As Melville’s frustration grew deeper as a result of the reading public’s misunderstanding of his novels such as Moby-Dick and Pierre, his family urged him to travel around European countries and put a stop to his career as a writer. However, in the period of the mid-1850s, he went down the path of more professional artist. In order to satisfy the tastes of the reading public and to pursue his own truth-seeking mission, he made a decision to write short stories for the popular Putnam’s and Harper’s monthly magazine. For the purpose of analyzing Melville’s message in this period, I focused on the collection of short stories, the Piazza Tales, and especially on one story, “The Bell-Tower.” The first story, “The Piazza”, functions as an introduction, presaging the ensuing message of criticism of slavery and emphasizing the unreliable narrator’s viewpoint. Based on these directions, I analyzed “The Bell-Tower.” As an ideal type of intellectual, Bannadonna tries to realize the Renaissance humanism by constructing the bell clock tower, and in the process he is sacrificed by the mechanical utilitarian society symbolized by Talus’ attack of his brain. As seen in his death and the fall of the bell tower and the old capital, it is necessary to find a way out from the social contradiction of the 19th century U.S.